American Girls Store: A 7 Year Old Tradition

 I remember taking Olivia to the American Girl Store for her 7th birthday and it seemed like such a big deal.  It was new and different.  I thought how fun it would be to do this for each of the girls when they turned 7.  And now here we are already with the last.  We took the girls out of school early on Friday to head down.  This was a real treat for them since we never get out of school to do something fun.  It was nice and quiet at The Grove for a change.  We were there before the evening crowd and not there for the Saturday crowd.  We didn't have any plans except for shopping at the American Girl store so we were able to relax and take our time.
Abby felt like a queen.  She had already decided that she wanted the doll, MaryEllen.  Now that we are reading the books, she is actually a lot like Abby.  Abby also had money from her Grandparents to spend at the store, so this really was an American Girls birthday.  She loves her new doll and really loves that she has matching pjs to wear with her.  It's been fun to see all of the girls excited about their dolls again.  Playing with their dolls is one of my favorite things to see and hear my girls doing.  After we meandered around the store for awhile, we wandered the book store and then ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  We enjoyed the fountain and live music before we hit the road to head back home.  It was a sweet afternoon with the family and I think Abby was pretty excited about the whole day.